A strong start for our new school board
Hello friends & neighbors!
We’ve made big changes to improve governance and student outcomes.
The new year has brought a fresh start for our School Board! We began with unanimous elections for our new leadership: Chair Shavonda Fernandez (9th District) and Vice-Chair Matthew Percival (1st District).
We've also improved the efficiency and effectiveness of our meetings. Here are the key highlights:
Meeting materials will be publicly available two Fridays before Board Meeting week.
"Night-of" agenda changes only for emergencies, ensuring RPS families, staff, stakeholders, and the public have ample notice to prepare and participate.
Administration presentations are capped at 5 minutes, except for Dreams4RPS strategic plan updates, keeping the focus on student outcomes.
Individual Board Member discussion time is limited to 3 minutes per agenda item to promote efficiency.
At our last School Board meeting, we reviewed our “Big 3” strategic goals and the plan to achieve them over the next 5 years:
Accreditation: 20 more schools accredited by 2030.
Graduation: Raise the graduation rate to 93% by 2030.
Academics: Improve SOL scores by 20 percentage points, targeting 70% in Reading, 69% in Writing, 63% in History/Social Studies, 67% in Math, and 65% in Science.
Richmond Public Schools is starting its budget process, and your input is vital! Public comment opportunities:
Tuesday, February 4th, 6:00 PM: Budget public hearing.
Tuesday, March 4th, 6:00 PM: School Board meeting.
To reach me: Email: afaruk [at] rvschools.net (preferred)
I will post regular updates on this, and on my Bluesky page (no account needed to view). I’m excited about all we’ll achieve together!